Three In One / Based on Romans 8:12-17 and John 3:1-17 / Delivered to CCH on May 27, 2018

Three In One / Based on Romans 8:12-17 and John 3:1-17 / Delivered to CCH on May 27, 2018

Hymns: Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! 

Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart 

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Romans 8:12-17

8:12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--

8:13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
8:15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!"
8:16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
8:17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

John 3:1-17

3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
3:2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."
3:3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."
3:4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"
3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
3:7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'
3:8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
3:9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"
3:10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
3:11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.
3:12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
3:14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
3:15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
3:17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Good morning.  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston and I am one of the Lay Speakers of the United Methodist Church up on the hill from here.  It is my joy to be with you all this day.  I’m pulling in two scriptures from the lectionary, so you’ll get a double dose.

It is Memorial Day tomorrow which is our day to remember those that have died while serving in the armed forces.  I will not dwell on Memorial Day in our time together but did want to take a moment to recognize the mix of emotions some of you and I may have as we remember family and friends that are no longer with us.  It is a mixture of pride and of loss.  I send my love to each of you that are remembering someone special this weekend.

Today is Trinity Sunday.  It is the Sunday following Pentecost which is when the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples.  They had worshiped God, walked with Jesus, and now were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Our trinity became complete on Pentecost. 

I’m going to approach this doctrine and our scriptures today in these three ways.

Being Three In One
Being Born Anew
Being Forever Changed

Being Three in one:

Let me start with my basic belief.  I do not feel God is a separate being in these three forms.  I believe God is in a separate environment in each.

An analogy that sprang to mind as I worked on this sermon is this.  I created this message after studying scripture by typing at my computer in my living room.  At that moment you could call me the “Creator”.  The thoughts formed into words.  I am delivering it to you today.  You see me face-to-face.  I am transferring those thoughts captured on my computer in a physical way to you.  Later, if you have access to the internet, you could pull up my blog where I will post a copy of this message and be reminded of what I said today.  The creation of the message, the physical delivery of the message, and the blog that recaps the message are all me, but all quite different.

The other simple analogy I’ve been taught is using water.  When very cold, water becomes a solid.  When very hot, water becomes a gas.  Between those two extremes water is a liquid.  It is still always water, but changes form based on its environment.

God in heaven is the creator, Jesus is the physical presence of God on earth, and the Holy Spirit is the presence of God within our minds.  God in three environments to reach us as fully as possible.

That is my attempt at making a somewhat confusing doctrine a little less confusing.  It is easier to understand different forms of a message as it goes through a process or different physical forms water can take as it is within different temperature ranges.  

These are easy ideas, so we can grasp them.  It’s a little harder to think about environments we’re unfamiliar with.  Yet that is what both Jesus and Paul told us we needed to do.

Being Born Anew
John 3:3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."
3:4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"
3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
3:7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'

Romans 8:12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--

8:13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

We are created in God’s image.  God can go into a place where we can’t see Him yet He is there as our teacher and counselor as the Holy Spirit.  Jesus and Paul are reminding us we are also spiritual beings.  We must embrace that place which is different from our physical presence.  This is a tough one.  Jesus understood it was confusing, so he brought up a physical force we are comfortable with yet can’t see.  The wind.

John 3:8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus doesn’t understand that either and Jesus challenges his ability to be a teacher if he can’t understand.

We don’t see the wind.  Meteorologists understand high and low pressure and how it can make the wind stronger or weaker.  We can see evidence of the wind when it picks up debris on the ground or when it makes trees wave back and forth.  We don’t see it as spooky.  We know it is real.  It just isn’t visible.

Jesus tells us to embrace ourselves as spirit is like that.  Our being in the environment of spirit is not seen, yet fully present in the kingdom of God.  We know our physical body will die.  This scripture is telling us our spiritual being will not die.  It is this spiritual being that we can claim now.

Being Forever Changed

Romans 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
8:15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!"
8:16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
8:17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

The word “Abba” is closely translated as “Daddy”.  God is not a Father we are to be distant from.  God is a Father that wants to hold us close and lovingly like a child’s earthly Daddy. 

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

3:17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

We are embraced by God not with our physical selves but with our spiritual selves.  It is our spirit that knows it is a child of God.  When God chose to bring us into his family our being was transformed.

Today on Trinity Sunday we honor the doctrine that God is in three forms.  Jesus is asking us to also understand that we can take a form other than our physical form.  We are called to be born from above and identify with our spiritual birthday. 

We are created in God’s image.  We have become a mixture of body and spirit.  Jesus had a foot in both worlds from his birth.  We have been adopted to be in both worlds. 

A friend once told me that we are mistaken when we say we have spiritual experiences.  Instead we are spiritual beings having an earthly experience.  I am asking you to embrace that truth this morning.

Our immortal being is already present today.  The spirit is within us as a child of God.  We cannot see it, but like the wind it is there.  We are forever changed by God’s divine love.

Amen